You know that feeling, when you've become fully immersed in a story and you no longer realize you're just reading words on a page? Well, that feeling never came for me in Velvet Was the Night.
Maite is a self-centered girl, working as a secretary while waiting for a wealthy, attractive man to sweep her off her feet. El Elvis is a thug in the Hawks, whose sole purpose is to undermine activist students using whatever means necessary. When Maite's neighbor goes missing, their individual steps to find her slowly take them on an intersecting path toward each other and danger.
Even though I thoroughly enjoyed the other two books I'd read by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and the writing in this one is as sharp as ever, somehow the story itself fell flat to me. I didn't connect with it at all. And I've been trying to figure out what happened ever since.
I think one issue is that I didn't really like the characters. Maite is off-putting to the extreme. She's the most awful combination of vain and vapid. She's extremely judgey of everyone on a superficial level while having nothing to offer, not even kindness. Meanwhile, Elvis seems only to care about rock and roll music in between beating up students for a paycheck. I just couldn't find even a sliver of connection to these two.
The other big issue is the book covers topics I'm fairly ambivalent about. I don't really enjoy reading about mobsters being cool or beating each other up. Nor do I enjoy reading about self-indulgent people preening and pitying themselves for their lack wealthy and good-looking boyfriends. Nor did I understand any of the references to Mexican government dysfunction during the 1970s. And with its numerous musical references, I didn't know one single song that was mentioned.
Without emotionally connecting with the story, this felt like a slog that wouldn't end. I don't want to dissuade anyone from reading this because I can imagine it being enjoyable for the right audience, but unfortunately, it wasn't me. I remain a fan of the author, but I'll avoid any more of her noir pulp fiction.
Readaroo Rating: 3 stars
This was an add-on for my Book of the Month box. If you're curious about BOTM or want to find out how to get your first book for $5, click here.
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